In my opinion, you are a successful business owner when you have both time and money.
Most business success is measured by revenue generation. And that makes sense. The more money you make then, the more likely it is that the business is thriving and there's a profit to be realized.
My father was a New York City police officer. He worked extra jobs such as driving a school bus and an oil truck on his days off to make extra money to feed my two brothers and me. He never complained; he just did it.
On my mom's side of the family, my grandfather and three uncles owned and operated a small home heating oil business. In the 1970'and '80s, they were in their heyday. They expanded the company and also went into commercial air conditioning. They were doing well, to put it modestly. However, they were true small business owners. They worked their fingers to the bone, 7-days per week. They made some wise investments like real estate. They also purchased a summer home in the Pocono Mountains in eastern Pennsylvania for my grandparents and the whole family to enjoy.
As a police officer, my dad had ample vacation time and personal days and spent half the summer with my cousins and us at the house. However, my uncles, who paid for the whole thing, were lucky if they got to the vacation home for one week in the summer.
I recall going to the big community pool every day. At the pool, there was a snack bar that made the best hamburgers ever. You could smell them from the parking lot.
However, because my dad's budget was tight, we NEVER got to indulge in the burgers. We'd bring baloney sandwiches to the pool and eat behind a tree so we would be seen as poor.
In retrospect, it was fine. I had many glorious summers up there at Lake Naomi.
However, when my uncles would show up for a short stint in the heat of summer, we would get burgers at the pool bar every single day, and I remember those burgers to this day!
I would complain to my dad about the lack of burgers for the remainder of the summer. He would say, "Listen, Tom, you can time or money. You can't have both."
My dad said it, so it was gospel to me, and boy, it sure looked like that to me.
As I became more interested in business, I read tons of books, such as Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, and The E-myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. In these books, I learned that you can have time and money. It is accomplished through delegation and having systems in your business. Franchising is built on systems.
So, with the right franchise and the proper execution, you can actually buy time.
When you get to a certain point in your endeavor, you can start hiring assistants for every part of your life. It becomes a necessity if you want to expand and still enjoy your life and business. As an example, if it takes you 60 minutes to get your car washed and pick up dry cleaning, it may make sense to hire someone for $20 per hour to do it for you. However, there are two criteria: you don't enjoy or get anything out of doing those tasks. The other thing is that you can make $60.00 or more in an hour concentrating on your business instead of doing menial tasks. If that is the case, paying someone pays for itself.
Take The First Step
Make a list of the items you don't like to do and determine if you can afford to pay someone to do them for you. That, in my opinion, is success.
As a business owner, your goal should be to get to a point where you are doing nothing in your life except the things you enjoy doing. Your business should be the vehicle that delivers to you the time and money so you may enjoy life with family, friends, and your passions. Oh yea, you must stay healthy to enjoy your time so don't forget to exercise too. Unfortunately, you can't hire someone to work out for you.
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